Marijuana business leaders are not optimistic that federal rescheduling will happen this year—though 97 percent said the reform and the resulting federal tax relief are “important” to their “long-term viability”—according to a new poll.
Shield Compliance – which offers compliance management for banks that serve the legal marijuana industry – released on Wednesday the results from its 2025 financial services survey, outlining the “banking experience and priorities” state licensed marijuana businesses.
The poll included a question about the pending marijuana reclassification that will move marijuana to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act. Donald Trump has recently stated his administration would make a final decision regarding this issue shortly.
On a scale of 0 to 100 the average answer was 34.
That’s in spite of the fact that the vast majority of respondents (about 97 percent) said that rescheduling—and the resulting federal tax relief—say the reforms are “important” to the “long-term viability” of their businesses.
This includes 61 per cent who rated them “extremely Important.”
Over 80 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the customer service provided by their providers and more than 70 percent stated that compliance was acceptable.
The poll of 142 cannabis operators found out that, in addition to this level of satisfaction and the desire for innovative payment solutions, more than 60% of them are also eagerly awaiting innovation. Nearly 30% said they were considering switching banks to get credit in the next 12 months.
In a recent press release, Tony Repanich (President and CEO at Shield Compliance) said that the survey results “highlight a paradox” in cannabis banking. The survey results show that operators value their banking relationship, yet the need for innovation in payments and access to credit is a significant opportunity for financial institutions.
The underlying banking issue in the cannabis industry remains. Rescheduling the industry would allow it to take federal tax deductions, under the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’s) code 280E. But that would not solve the issue of banking.
A bipartisan group of attorneys general representing 32 states and territories in the U.S. has recently asked Congress to pass legislation to allow licensed cannabis businesses to access financial services.
The Democratic Senate Sponsor of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act, SAFER, recently announced that despite attempts to coordinate meetings in relation to the bill, other priorities are taking precedence at the moment.
Asked about recent comments Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH)—the lead GOP sponsor of the SAFER Banking Act this session who told MEDCAN24 that he doesn’t expect the bill to come up until this fall—Sen. Jeff Merkley said that he hopes the bill will be introduced sooner rather than late.
In January, the office of Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), who is again leading the effort on the House said, told MEDCAN24 that he would be filing the cannabis banking legislation this session but that its introduction was “not imminent” as some earlier reports had suggested.
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A leading anti-marijuana group recently sounded the alarm about a possible attempt to put the cannabis banking measure in a cryptocurrency bill that was advancing on the Senate floor, but that didn’t come to fruition.
It’s an open question whether cannabis reform legislation has a shot at passing in the near future, with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and opponents of legalizing marijuana occupying key leadership roles. This is despite Trump’s endorsement of marijuana industry banking, rescheduling, and Florida legalization initiatives on the campaign trails.
On the House side, a Republican lawmaker said in March he’s hopeful that Congress will be able to get a marijuana banking bill across “the finish line” this session, arguing that the current barriers to financial services for the industry represent a “second tier” of prohibition.
Cannabis industry banking challenges came up in several congressional hearings in March, including a Senate Banking Committee meeting on debanking where senators on both sides of the aisle addressed the lack of financial services access for marijuana businesses.
Meanwhile, in January congressional researchers released a report detailing the subject of debanking—while making a point to address how the marijuana industry’s financial services access problem “sits at the nexus” of a state-federal policy conflict that complicates the debate.
Separately, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced in December that it’s convening focus groups comprised of marijuana businesses to better understand their experiences with access to banking services under federal prohibition.
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